Ashley McCool cracks top-five in Grand Prix debut

BOLZANO, Italy – Ashley McCool of Calgary posted her best score of the competition on Sunday to finish fifth on women’s three-metre to conclude the Bolzano FINA Grand Prix diving competition.

Yiwen Chen led China to a 1-2 finish with 341.50 while Xiaohui Huang was second at 323.25. Brooke Schultz of the U.S. was third at 283.60, Alicia Blagg of Britain fourth at 281.10 followed by McCool, in her Grand Prix debut, at 251.60.

As was the case in the preliminaries and semifinals, McCool was a model of consistency. In Sunday’s final, her best score was on her reverse dive for which she earned three 7.0’s and four 6.5’s for 56.00 points.

Her overall score improved from 224.25 in prelims and 241.85 in semis.

Two other Canadians were also in action this weekend.

On Friday, Peter Thach Mai of Montreal was seventh on men’s three-metre and on Saturday Alexandre Corriveau of Terrebonne, Que., was ninth on men’s tower.

The next stop on the Grand Prix circuit is this weekend (July 13-15) in Madrid.